Nick has the day after the disastrous dinner off, which he spends his aunt's trailer trying to gather more information on arranged marriages in general. He wants as much data as possible before he can even begin to contemplate how to break the contract between Renard and him. He learns a lot before he has to go back to the office, but none of it appears to be useful to his goal.
The next morning, he has only been sitting at his desk for a couple of minutes when Wu wanders over with his customary smirk. Nick ignores him even as Wu exchanges a glance with Hank.
"Anything you want to tell us, Burkhardt?" Wu drawls. "You know something that might be happening between you and our illustrious captain?"
The detective looks up from the monitor of his computer to glare at Wu before also glaring at his partner who seems to be far too interested in the conversation for Nick's taste.
"No. There's nothing to tell and there's certainly nothing going on between Renard and me." Nick snaps.
"You sure? Because from the way he stormed back in here the other night, I'd say, dinner didn't go well."
"Nothing is or was going on." Nick insists.
Wu looks disbelieving. "Fine. If you want to play it like that, I have work to do."
The sergeant stays in place for a few minutes in case Nick decides he suddenly wants to spill his guts. He eventually wanders away after Nick refuses to respond to his last statement. Hank, though, continues to stare at his partner like he is trying to figure out the pieces to a puzzle, but wisely does not say anything.
Nick is surprised to find that avoiding Renard as the day goes on is unnecessary; Renard does a fine job of avoiding Nick on his own. By the end of the day, Nick determines that he really dislikes not being able to talk to his captain. The two of them were never close friends, but the distance between them still hurts.
As the days wear on, Nick spends more of his nights wading through the massive amounts of material in Aunt Marie's trailer. No amount of information on the different types of marriage contracts, who needs to be present when they are formed, how to fulfill them and more give any indication that it is possible to break one. When Nick exhausts all of his written sources, he turns to Monroe hoping that the Blutbad can provide answers.
"Why would you want to refuse?" Monroe asks when Nick brings it up.
Nick is sitting on Monroe's couch drinking beer while Monroe carefully packs up all of his holiday decorations. The process seems time consuming given how carefully Monroe holds and wraps each ornament, even the ones that are not breakable.
"The way I look at it, you gain the means and backing to do whatever you want Grimm-wise in the Portland area." Monroe continues when Nick remains silent. "What's wrong with accepting?"
"That I don't have the choice in accepting."
"But you even told me that Renard wants to provide you with the protection and perks of being married without demanding anything in return."
"And?"
"And you're being an idiot." Monroe rolls his eyes. Nick is unsure how he should feel about the fact that his friendship has grown so quickly from Nick demanding answers to Monroe freely insulting him. "He's obviously got feelings that run a lot deeper than just being your boss. I've lived here for years, and trust me, he does not give out help, protection, whatever, freely. He always wants something in return—"
"He wants me to marry him in return." Nick points out.
Monroe lets out a little huff of breath. He does not attempt to say anything as he wraps up the rest of the Christmas ornaments and starts on his train set. His body language radiates tension. The detective wonders what part of this conversation offended the Blutbad.
"You marry him, and he provides you protection. He's not demanding that you remain faithful to him or anything of the sort. He doesn't just do that!" Monroe answers. "I know most creatures would kill to be in your position. Yet all you want to know is how to get out of it?"
"Sorry." The Grimm apologizes. He knows Monroe has a good point. "This is just all still new to me."
His friend just shrugs as the tension drains out of him. Monroe seems to accept his excuse. "You can't break the contract, by the way. I've never heard of anyone doing it. Also, the stories I've heard of people trying don't end well."
"What am I supposed to do then?"
"Get married." Monroe deadpans. "But, from the way you've been protesting this entire time, I wonder if it's a case of 'the lady doth protest too much.'"
Nick glares.
Even though Nick is starting to realize that his impending marriage is starting to look more and more like it is a sure event, he throws himself into his Grimm research and his detective work. His closure rate shoots through the roof. He carefully does not think about Monroe's points and the fact that Renard is still avoiding him.
That, of course, is when Nick notices that he finds himself wanting to be closer to Renard. He feels better when the captain is around, like some invisible weight is lifted off his shoulders. Everything seems possible, and every problem has a solution. He just feels so relieved at work despite his case load. Even though he feels great at work, the second Nick heads home, he starts feeling more anxious. It only takes a couple of days for Nick to start catching naps in the station because he is losing sleep at home.
The Grimm thinks he might be going crazy. When he explains how he feels to Monroe, the wolf grins as he describes that the mood shifts are a side effect of ignoring the contract, and his desire to be closer to Renard will continue to grow stronger as long as he remains unmarried.
The detective tells Monroe to quit trying to be funny, but ends up attending more debriefings, than he had been in the past several weeks. Nick decides he really hates the way Renard seems to ignore him unless Nick needs something for a case, or Renard is giving Nick a case.
After a particularly hard week, Nick heads towards his house straight from the station instead of heading to Marie's trailer or Monroe's house. His emotions have been a mess since the discovery of the compulsion to wed. He is exhausted from all the cases that have come across his desk. He just wants to sleep and sort everything out in the morning.
He unlocks the door to his house on autopilot. He twists the door open while the key is still in the lock, and glances across the street towards his neighbors' parked cars. One car still has people sitting in it with engine and interior lights off. Nick plans to ignore them. What his neighbors do in the dark or their cars is really none of his business unless it happens to be illegal.
Then, as he stares at the car, Nick's Grimm senses tingle. He does not have to keep staring to know that the people in the car are not his neighbor and are Grimm creatures. He groans in frustration. He just wants to collapse on his bed in exhaustion. Determined to be left in peace, he shuts his front door and heads back down the front steps towards the car.
He raps on the driver's side window of the car. The car's occupants start even though they watched him approach. The driver turns on the car enough to roll down his window. The car's interior light illuminates the face of refrigerator repairman Juliette had once called. Nick can see the man's sheepish expression as they continue to stare at him.
"Yes Detective?" The repairman asks.
"What are you doing?" Nick inquires.
"Watching you." One of the other occupants speaks up.
"Why?"
"Because you don't try to kill us." The third occupant answers.
Nick is aware that he would normally be amused by the behavior, but his month has just not been going well. A trio of creatures spreading the idea that he is apparently different from other Grimm's is not a bad idea, but Nick is not in the mood to have more creatures popping by his house.
He adapts a hostile glare. The repairman and his friends squirm uneasily.
"This is not the right way to not piss me off." He snarls. "Get out of here before I make you leave."
"I thought you said he wasn't dangerous," The second occupants of the car says nervously. The third occupant hits him to shut up.
"He's not." The repairman says confidently. "Besides, we haven't done anything wrong. He can't make us leave."
Nick takes a menacing step. He reaches through the down window and grips the repairman by the front of his shirt. There are a couple of terrified whimpers from inside the car. The Grimm ignores them and leans close to the ring leader's face.
"Leave now." He hisses. "You don't want to find out how I plan to make you leave."
He lets go and backs up. It takes a few seconds for the repairman to stop shaking enough to start up his car. He peels out of his parking space and around the corner. Nick's emotions are still all over the place, but he feels strangely calmer like he needed on confront someone. As he heads back towards his house, concern grows in his gut about how it felt good to terrify creatures who had not done anything wrong besides be curious.